Tackling entertainment and the two most taboo topics in life - Politics and Religion - from a conservative, centrist and libertarian worldview

"A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory." Leonard Nimoy

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Minimum Wage - Don't Do Simon Says

Television writer and creator David Simon gave an interview with journalist Bill Moyers in which he stated his support for President Obama's desire to increase the minimum wage from its current level to a little over $10.00 (USD) per hour. If Simon would have ended his comments with his support then I wouldn't be posting this article. However, like most progressive liberals from Hollywood he simply couldn't let it end with that but found it necessary to lay at the feet of Republicans and past Republican Presidents and administrations all the current economic woes this nation is currently facing even going as far as stating that, “We are Reagan’s children, we are Thatcher’s children, we bought this stuff hook, line, and sinker. We're getting the America we paid for!” I'm not sure how America's woes get laid at the feet of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, but I suppose like many liberals Simon finds it difficult not to lump all conservatives into the same sack.

Okay Mr. Simon if you are correct in your assessment that we are the children of Ronald Reagan's economic policies, then we are also Franklin Roosevelt's children and Lyndon B. Johnson's children when it comes to draining this nation's economy dry to the bone funding so many government sponsored (which equates to taxpayer funded) social welfare programs that have tragically failed the American people over the last eight decades, and yet, you progressives insist the middle class taxpayer must continue shouldering the overall burden for them.

Wake up liberals! - there is no such thing as a level playing field - never has been, and until we achieve Gene Roddenberry's vision (and even he admitted it took the aftermath of WWIII to get that) - there will never be. This nation still pronounces itself to be Christian-based and yet even Christianity's most central character stated - "the poor will always be among you" when Judas confronted his teacher to sell the expensive oil being used to anoint Jesus' feet and instead sell it and use the gains to help the less fortunate among them. That is not a justification for not helping the poor but it certainly brings home the realization that the kumbaya-utopian society envisioned by progressive liberals in which all share equally among society is purely a socialistic pipe dream that those working hard everyday in the middle of that society always ends up footing the bill for and never seeing a positive achievable endgame or lasting outcome.

Getting back on topic, which is the minimum wage, that whole idea is pretty much a political ploy to allow large corporations and governments working together to continue controlling the lives of working individuals by making them think they are actually increasing their personal worth within the workplace by making a certain 'expected standard of living.' It doesn't matter what the 'minimum wage' is because whether it's $7.00 per hour or $15.00 per hour it is still MINIMUM WAGE. The buying power of the worker receiving whatever amount it ends up being will not increase as a result and may very well likely decrease in actual worth. Over time businesses will adjust their prices to reflect the increase in wages the new minimum wage will exact on their bottom line and that will, in just a matter of time, level out or even decrease the overall gains those who earn thought they had acquired by getting a numerical increase in their hourly rate. Nothing will get in the way of a corporation or business' bottom line. If it does profits are lost, stockholders pull out, companies go out of business or move to more profit-oriented countries to manufacture their goods and American jobs are lost thereby increasing the need for more failed social welfare bailout programs such as food stamps, unemployment compensation and welfare checks. I call these failed social programs because after nearly eighty years of operation had most of them been successful then we should have seen a decrease over time of their functionality and need instead of the overwhelming percentage jumps we have witnessed, especially within the last fourteen years.

If the majority wish to vote or let their representatives know that they want to see an increase in the minimum wage then by all means increase it. Hell, increase it to $100, $200, $300 (USD) per hour for all the real difference it will make. Increasing the minimum wage has always kept the poor poor, the middle footing the bill, and the ultra-rich unaffected. Why? Because whatever the minimum wage is becomes the new low bar standard by which all other financial classes in society are measured therefore making no real change at all in the real economic problems facing this nation and its people which is this government's insatiable, uncontrollable appetite for printing and spending money it doesn't have - not how much each worker earns per hour.